Making an art golf cart using chicken wire and material

[Gknee]

Hi there

We've got a golf cart were trying to make look like some sort of alien or bug. The plan would be to put the body of the bug on the roof of the cart. Anyone have experience with using chicken wire and then stretching fabric on top of it? How should we attach the fabric to the chicken wire and the chicken wire to the cart?

Any suggestions for how to make a giant bug using chicken wire and fabric on top of a golf cart are appreciated!

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[spectabillis]

adhesive some plastic sheeting to the chickenwire, might give you a base to attach whatever to the plastic?

what framing are you using to support the chickenwire?

[ibdave]

Ah, but the real question is, Have you gotten you permit for your mutant car??? If your starting thos late you might be to late for this year... I think the deadline has passed.. Yes??

[spectabillis]

good question.

[ibdave]

why, thank you... i thought so also...

[Gknee]

Actually, it's going to be a disabled persons mutant vehicle. Had knee surgery recently so I need a way to get around besides a bike and walking. BM staff assured me it would be okay to be submitting for a disabled vehicle permit at this late date.

So, hate to ask a naïve question but... what sort of framing do I need to have to support the chicken wire? Isn't that the purpose of the chicken wire? It'll be attached to the roof of the car with bailing wire ( open to suggestions there). Thank you

[AntiM]

Wood. Skinny little pieces of wood. And bigass staples. Gotta love staple guns when working with chicken wire. Chicken wire will fold in on itself without support. We use big honkin' 2x4s to keep our wire up, but our application isn't small and mobile. I wish I could be more specific, but mylarry isn't here to answer my questions.

[Token]

Chicken Wire, the death of a thousand cuts.

Do it now so that all the many cuts will heal before the Playa.

Since you are looking for an organic "bug" like form here are some alternatives that are more fun and a lot messier.

1. Use expanding foam. The stuff in a can that you use for weatherproofing windows. The Home Depot brand is "Great Stuff". Once the basic shape hardens you can cut it with one of those $10 electric carving knives, chain saw, skill saw, steel bristle brush, sand it, grind it, spackle it... You can spray the expanding foam direct on the wire without supporting it since the foam is rigid when dry and won't collapse unless someone stomps on it. There is also a “minimally expanding foam” available for filling in details and gaps. Beware; this stuff is very sticky and hard to get off skin. Wear goggles, gloves and disposable clothes. One of them tyvec overalls from the paint section for a few bucks will be fine.

2. Instead of chicken wire, use alternative forms for the basic shape; beach balls, a bunch of balloons stuffed into stockings, old sponge cushions, inflated garbage bags, several cheap umbrellas, bunched up newspaper for filling the gaps, etc. Wrap it up in some Saran Wrap or similar so the form holds temporarily. Then cover with some foam and maybe embed some net material from a surplus store as armature, for strength, in between the layers of foam. Once the thing is near done, remove, cut, whack the form material out leaving the reinforced foam. Lite and custom designed.

3. Get creative with organic industrial shapes that you can embed into the foam. Go browse your local Home Depot / Lowes etc. Things like the flexible corrugated plastic pipe from the plumbing section would look rad on an alien/bug. Aluminum flex conduit would make cool accents.

Worst thing that can happen is you driving in an undecorated cart. If this ends up being a reality, go to a surplus store and get some “Swat Team” style duds, don’t forget the cool cap, old school aviator sun glasses, a pair of binoculars, a robust looking radio from a pawn/thrift store, maybe an old CB radio for the cart and some big ass whip antennae. Drive around and stop often, then use binoculars to “observe” folks. Carry a clip board and a camera with one of them big telephoto lenses. Take notes and pretend to take pictures of far away subjects.

[Gknee]

Thank you so much. More than enough here to keep me busy all weekend trying to figure this out. Much appreciated!

[RingRing]

For my camp's (Fimbulvinter) mutant vehicle, we did use a lot of chicken wire. The secret to covering it is to do a papier-mache style covering, but using ripped up bed sheets or other fabric strips instead of paper. You just need to mix up a glue substance. Buy a gallon jug of carpenter's wood glue at Home Depot, and mix in about an equal amount of wheat flour - white will work too, but the thicker stuff like wheat germ works even better, and an equal amount of water. You can adjust this mix by adding more water to make it easier to spread or less water to make it thicker and it will set up sooner. You can make it thinner, and then slop extra onto the fabric you've already applied to the chicken wire.

This works really well, and seems to be pretty weather proof too. Look for our car driving around on the playa - it's an igloo on an ice floe. Can't miss it!

[wedeliver]

I think this is one of the most usefull posts on how to make things that I have ever seen.. thanks

Chicken Wire, the death of a thousand cuts.

Do it now so that all the many cuts will heal before the Playa.

Since you are looking for an organic "bug" like form here are some alternatives that are more fun and a lot messier.

1. Use expanding foam. The stuff in a can that you use for weatherproofing windows. The Home Depot brand is "Great Stuff". Once the basic shape hardens you can cut it with one of those $10 electric carving knives, chain saw, skill saw, steel bristle brush, sand it, grind it, spackle it... You can spray the expanding foam direct on the wire without supporting it since the foam is rigid when dry and won't collapse unless someone stomps on it. There is also a “minimally expanding foam” available for filling in details and gaps. Beware; this stuff is very sticky and hard to get off skin. Wear goggles, gloves and disposable clothes. One of them tyvec overalls from the paint section for a few bucks will be fine.

2. Instead of chicken wire, use alternative forms for the basic shape; beach balls, a bunch of balloons stuffed into stockings, old sponge cushions, inflated garbage bags, several cheap umbrellas, bunched up newspaper for filling the gaps, etc. Wrap it up in some Saran Wrap or similar so the form holds temporarily. Then cover with some foam and maybe embed some net material from a surplus store as armature, for strength, in between the layers of foam. Once the thing is near done, remove, cut, whack the form material out leaving the reinforced foam. Lite and custom designed.

3. Get creative with organic industrial shapes that you can embed into the foam. Go browse your local Home Depot / Lowes etc. Things like the flexible corrugated plastic pipe from the plumbing section would look rad on an alien/bug. Aluminum flex conduit would make cool accents.

Worst thing that can happen is you driving in an undecorated cart. If this ends up being a reality, go to a surplus store and get some “Swat Team” style duds, don’t forget the cool cap, old school aviator sun glasses, a pair of binoculars, a robust looking radio from a pawn/thrift store, maybe an old CB radio for the cart and some big ass whip antennae. Drive around and stop often, then use binoculars to “observe” folks. Carry a clip board and a camera with one of them big telephoto lenses. Take notes and pretend to take pictures of far away subjects.

[Token]

* Blush *